Hnetflix

Film | by Shane “Road Trip” Hnetka

One of the cool things about Saskatchewan: trips between Regina and Saskatoon are extremely easy. In fact, there are a couple of reasons for folks of both cities to do some travelling in the next few weeks. On Friday, April 28 Saskatoon’s Roxy Theatre shows Wings, an awesome silent classic from 1927, with a live orchestra. It’s not very often that you can experience a movie like this, so it’s worth a trip. Then on the first weekend in May, folks from Saskatoon might want to take a trip down to Regina.

Fan Expoing

Back for another year is Fan Expo Regina, on May 6 and 7. For the uninitiated, Fan Expo is what the old nerds of yore used to call a comic book convention. In this day and age with the super-popularity of pop culture in general, these events are more media expos where fans can meet their favourite celebrity than an old-style comic convention. Not to say that comic books are forgotten — they still play a part, but they do tend to take a back seat to the celebrities.

This year the media guests including T.J. Hooker himself, William Shatner, a.k.a. the man from Nightmare at 20,000 Feet. Bret The Hitman Hart, Michael Cudlitz (The Walking Dead), Bruce Boxleitner (Babylon 5, Tron) and Pat Mastroianni and Stefan Brogren of Degrassi Junior High fame are also scheduled. Not too shabby a list for the Fan Expo’s fourth year.

But Wait, There’s More

On top of all the media guests there’s also voice actors Sean Schemmel of Dragon Ball Z and Linda Ballantyne and Katie Griffin from Sailor Moon. Ballantyne was the third actress to voice Sailor Moon, but she also voiced the most episodes with the last 62. Katie Griffin voiced Sailor Mars for the majority of the series.

And then there’s the comic creators, the folks who actually put the comic in comic convention. This year we get Ed Brisson (current writer on Iron Fist), Adam Gorham (Rocket Raccoon), the legendary Tom Grummet (Superman) and Ty Templeton (Batman Animated and upcoming Your Pal Archie). All very cool and awesome folks. Of course, there is lots of other cool stuff to see and do.

Saturday May 6 is also Free Comic Book Day so don’t forget to visit your local comic store no matter what city you happen to be in. Also, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 opens! It’s a great weekend to be a nerd.